How To Grow Tasty Tomatoes Indoors Or On Patios
Tomatoes are easy to grow, very productive and don’t require much space. Just follow these tips and you will harvest lots of sweet and juicy tomatoes by the end of the summer. Container tomatoes, whether you are using a grow-bag or a pot, are one of modern gardening’s great advances, since anyone can now have at least a few home-grown tomatoes, even if they live in a top floor apartment with only one sun facing window!
Conditions for growing tomatoes in pots
If you want to grow tomatoes indoors it’s the sun facing window that really matters. They definitely need a lot of sun. If you have an area that gets plenty of sunshine, whether it is in a greenhouse, a conservatory, that famous south facing windowsill, then you can certainly grow your own tomatoes indoors.
If you decide to grow your container tomatoes outside on a patio or balcony choose a spot that gets a lot of sun as well. The spot should be sheltered from wind otherwise the plants can fall over when they are big and top-heavy.
Growing tomato plants in pots or growbags?
Tomato grow bags have become very popular in countries where they are available and are ideal for growing tomato plants in a greenhouse or against a sunny wall. The plastic keeps the soil moist with very little attention from you.
But they are not, of course, really suitable for that windowsill! Growing tomatoes in pots is a much better alternative for growing tomatoes indoors, on a patio, or for tomatoes that will need to be moved to catch the sun.
A tomato planter does not need to be deep. Tomatoes are shallow rooted plants and a wide shallow pot is better suited to their needs. It should be filled with a good general purpose compost before planting.
Growing tomato plants from seed
If you live in an area with short winters, it is well worth growing your own seed by pressing half a dozen seeds into compost in a five inch pot and , once they have germinated, leaving the strongest plant and weeding out the others. Once the little tomato is six inches high, it should be transplanted to its permanent pot.
Buying tomato plants
If however, you live in the frozen north and the growing season is short, you may well be better advised to buy some sturdy strong tomato plants that have been started in a heated commercial greenhouse. Also, if you have never grown tomatoes before, it may be better to buy plants in your first year.
Care of tomato plants
Growing tomatoes in pots means that you have to look after all their requirements. The soil has to be kept moist. Tomatoes HATE being sprinkled and getting their leaves wet so just water the soil, not the plant.
Once the tomatoes are flowering, the flowers need to be fertilised by insects before the tomatoes can produce fruit – so, if they are on that windowsill or in the conservatory, make sure you open all the windows to let those useful insects in!
As soon as the fruit starts to form, give the tomato plants a liquid feed – you can buy tomato fertilizer from garden centers. This is a potash rich food which encourages the fruit growth.
When the plant has between 6 and 8 trusses of fruit – little bunches – pinch out the top of all the growing stems so that the plant stops growing upwards and concentrates on its fruit.
